Over the last few decades, numerous studies have adopted efficiency and productivity techniques to examine and evaluate the overall performance of banking industries to inform policy effect as well as identify the best practice. The majority of banking efficiency and productivity studies focus on the developed US and European countries. There are only limited studies in the Asian banking industries but no cross-country comparison in major Asian economies. To fill this literature gap, this thesis attempts to measure and compare the cost efficiency and total factor productivity change in ten Asian banking sectors using an unbalanced panel data set consisting of 280 commercial banks over the period of 1998 to 2005. It is widely agreed that cross-country differences play an important part in examining banks performance in international comparison. They can influence the frontier technology as additional explanatory variables or they can enter inefficiency directly as a measure of determinants or heteroscedasticity. Both cases are considered in the empirical sections of this thesis. In the former case, the empirical results from systematic comparisons of panel data stochastic frontier models with and without incorporating these cross-country heterogeneities suggests that cross-country differences are important sources to explain banks performances therefore they should not be neglected. The overall cost efficiency in these Asian banking industries is 0.5897 with a decreasing trend, despite positive technical progress and slight economies of scale. The total factor productivity change is measured by using a new cost-based total factor productivity index, an index number counterpart of Bauer's (1990) total differential approach. A five-way decomposition is also provided with the attempt to identify the main contributors to the productivity change. Overall, Asian banking industries have experienced positive but not substantial productivity change from 1998-05. In the latter case, a general model that considers exogenous influences in both inefficiency and random noise error term is constructed and compared against other alternative specifications. The empirical results favour this general model and the overall and country-specific cost efficiency and total factor productivity are then estimated and calculated.

Using a unique dataset comprising information for (up to) 153 firms in the machine building sector in Belarus, we investigate the determinants of firm growth for an economy where state ownership of enterprises is widespread. We use panel data models based on generalizations of Gibrat's law, total factor productivity estimates and matching methods to assess the differences in firm growth between private and state-contolled firms. Our results indicate that labor hoarding and soft budget constraints play a particularly important role in explaining differences in performance between these two groups of firms.

Este trabalho estimou a produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) para a indústria de transformação brasileira no período de 2003 a 2012, utilizando-se de uma função translog e um modelo de fronteira estocástica. Os dados em painel originam-se da Pesquisa Industrial Anual do IBGE. O objetivo principal foi analisar a variação da PTF, decomposta em progresso técnico, eficiência técnica, efeito escala, eficiência alocativa e choques aleatórios. As conclusões revelam crescimento negativo da PTF para o conjunto das atividades industriais ao longo do período e para as atividades de alta, média alta e média baixa intensidades tecnológicas. Somente as atividades de baixa intensidade tecnológica apresentaram variação positiva na PTF. O progresso técnico foi o componente que mais contribuiu para a queda na PTF. / This study estimated the total factor productivity (TFP) for Brazilian manufacturing industry from 2003 to 2012, using a translog function and stochastic frontier model. The panel data originate from the Pesquisa Industrial Anual of IBGE. The main objective was to analyze the variation of TFP, decomposed into technical progress, technical efficiency, scale effect, allocative efficiency and random shocks. Results reveal negative TFP growth for the group of industrial activities over the period and to the high activity, upper middle and lower middle technological intensity. Only low technology activities had positive change in TFP. Technical progress was the component that contributed most to the fall in TFP.

O setor agropecuário brasileiro experimentou nas últimas décadas elevados ganhos de produtividade, fato esse que tem sido amplamente debatido na literatura econômica sobre o tema. O crescimento da produtividade agropecuária permitiu um amplo processo de liberação de mão de obra para as atividades urbanas e, especialmente, para o setor de serviços, possibilitando a ocorrência de mudança estrutural com redução da importância do setor primário na economia brasileira. A presente dissertação tem, dessa forma, dois objetivos, constituindo-se o primeiro a implementação de um modelo dinâmico de equilíbrio geral ajustado para refletir o padrão de mudança estrutural observado no Brasil entre 1981 e 2013. A análise insere-se na visão de que o crescimento da produtividade do setor primário é condição necessária para a mudança estrutural das economias ao longo de seu desenvolvimento, diferenciando-se, portanto, da abordagem que atribui o processo de mudança estrutural à presença de diferentes elasticidade-renda no consumo dos bens produzidos por cada setor. O segundo objetivo é utilizar o modelo calibrado para examinar um cenário hipotético em que a produtividade agropecuária comportar-se-ia como o observado para a economia brasileira, avaliando suas implicações sobre as participações de três setores (agropecuária, indústria e serviços) no valor adicionado total a preços correntes e no emprego. Especificamente, o modelo utilizado foi inspirado em Verma (2012) que constitui, por sua vez, uma adaptação empírica do modelo teórico proposto por Ngai e Pissarides (2007), e tem como mecanismo para a ocorrência de mudança estrutural o crescimento diferenciado da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) em cada setor da economia. O modelo base foi calibrado a partir de dados observados e revisão bibliográfica, e solucionado numericamente incorporando as séries de crescimento das PTFs dos três setores, obtidas por decomposição do crescimento à la Solow (1957), e reproduziu de maneira adequada o nível e, principalmente, tendência das participações no valor adicionado. A partir dos resultados obtidos, a simulação realizada sugeriu que em um cenário de baixo crescimento da produtividade agropecuária, a mão de obra do setor não teria sido liberada na magnitude em que efetivamente ocorreu, implicando a manutenção da participação deste setor no emprego e no valor adicionado, às custas do setor de serviços que haveria, então, passado por uma desaceleração do crescimento de suas participações nestas duas medidas de mudança estrutural. / In the last decades, Brazilian agriculture has experienced high productivity gains, as discussed by many studies in the economic literature. The agricultural productivity growth has allowed for a wide transfer of labor from agriculture to urban activities, especially to services sector, enabling the structural change process by reducing the primary sector share in Brazilian economy. This thesis has two objectives; the first one is the implementation of a dynamic general equilibrium model which capture the Brazilian structural change patterns between 1981 and 2013. The second objective is to simulate an alternative scenario in which agricultural productivity would have grown at the same rate as Brazilian economy\'s productivity has grown. More specifically, the model adopted was based on Verma (2012), which is an empirical adaptation of the theoretical model developed by Ngai and Pissarides (2007), which assumes that differences in sectoral total factor productivity (TFP) growth are the main mechanism for structural change occurrence. The baseline model was numerically solved after calibration with real data and literature review, and obtainment of sectoral TFP growth series by growth accounting à la Solow (1957), and it reproduces robustly the level and trend of the three sectors\' value added shares in the economy. The alternative scenario\'s simulation suggests that in the presence of low agricultural productivity growth, the labor would not be released from agriculture at the same magnitude, what would imply in a lower growth of service sector\'s shares in the stylized measures of structural change.

Este trabalho visa estudar a evolução da produtividade dos bancos brasileiros ao longo dos anos de 2000 a 2014, analisando o período pré e pós 2003, quando iniciou-se a introdução de reformas institucionais que afetaram o setor bancário, dando base à sustentabilidade do crescimento do crédito na economia e fortalecendo a estrutura das operações tanto à pessoa física quanto à pessoa jurídica. O estudo é introduzido através da estimação de funções de produção e obtenção de medidas de produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) para 86 bancos individuais, empregando as técnicas de Levinsohn e Petrin (2003) e de Ackerberg, Caves e Frazer (2015) para controlar problemas de endogeneidade e colinearidade que surgem por conta da variável não observada (produtividade) e da escolha dos insumos. Os bancos foram divididos em três grupos: (i) intensivos em operações de crédito, utilizando como critério a razão de operações de crédito/total do ativo maior ou igual a 50% no período anterior às reformas; (ii) não intensivos em operações de crédito, reunindo bancos com a razão anteriormente mencionada menor que 10%, tendo como premissa que esse conjunto não é afetado diretamente pelas reformas; e (iii) os cinco maiores bancos do sistema financeiro brasileiro em relação ao ativo total. Os resultados mostram que (i) a produtividade agregada dos bancos oscilava sem direção definida no período anterior às reformas, mas mostraram um crescimento após as reformas; (ii) bancos intensivos em operações de crédito apresentaram ganho de produtividade de 7,0% a.a. após as reformas, totalizando 110,7% no período de 2004 a 2014, o que representa um crescimento bem mais expressivo que os 4,3% a.a. para os bancos não intensivos, totalizando ganho de 58,9% após as reformas; e (iii) maior realocação do produto de bancos menos produtivos para bancos mais produtivos durante a crise financeira mundial de 2008. / This paper aims to study the productivity of Brazilian banks from 2000 to 2014, analyzing the period before and after 2003, when began the introduction of institutional reforms affecting the banking sector, supporting the sustainability of credit growth in the economy and strengthening the structure of operations both to individuals as to legal entities. The study is introduced by estimating production functions and obtaining the total factor productivity (TFP) for 86 individual banks, implementing the methodology proposed by Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and Ackerberg, Caves and Frazer (2015) to control problems of endogeneity and collinearity that arise due to the unobserved variable (productivity) and the choice of inputs. Banks were divided into three groups: (i) intensive in credit operations, using as criteria the ratio of credit operations/total assets greater than or equal to 50% in the period before the reforms; (ii) non-intensive in credit operations, bringing together banks with aforementioned ratio less than 10%, with the assumption that this group is not directly affected by the reforms; and (iii) the five largest banks in the Brazilian financial system in relation to total assets. The results show that (i) the aggregate productivity of banks fluctuated without a defined direction in the period before the reforms, but showed growth after the reforms; (ii) intensive banks in credit operations showed productivity gains of 7.0% (compound annual growth rate) after the reforms, totaling 110.7% from 2004 to 2014, which represents a much more significant growth than the 4.3% per year for non-intensive banks, totaling a gain of 58.9% after the reforms; and (iii) higher relocation of the product from less productive to more productive banks during the global financial crisis in 2008.

This thesis explored the measurement of performance of New Zealand tertiary education institutions (TEIs) and the demand for their services. This involved analysing the research performance of New Zealand universities, analysing the productive efficiency of New Zealand TEIs and examining the choice of provider by bachelor’s degree starters. Bibliometric data was used to measure the research productivity of New Zealand universities. This showed that following a fall during the early 2000s, the research productivity of New Zealand universities increased following the introduction of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). A multi-dimensional analysis of university research performance between 2000 and 2005 showed that no individual university was top in all four of the performance measures assessed. The overall performance of three universities, Massey University, Lincoln University and Auckland University of Technology, were noticeably below that of the other five universities. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was then applied to input and output data of New Zealand TEIs to analyse their productive efficiency. In 2006, polytechnics that had: low levels of bachelor’s degree provision, were not regionally based, had a high proportion of subcontracting and were larger institutions, achieved higher levels of pure technical efficiency. The analysis showed that several polytechnics could improve their technical efficiency by reducing their scale of operations. In polytechnics, higher technical efficiency was associated with better financial performance. A number of technically efficient polytechnics struggled financially, indicating that the overall efficiency of the polytechnic sector was not high, or the funding model they operate under is not appropriate. The analysis also showed that decreasing bachelor’s degree provision, poor financial performance in the previous year, an increase in provision of community education, was associated with higher growth in total factor productivity between 1996 and 2006. The application of DEA to Australasian university data between 1997 and 2005 showed that New Zealand universities performed relatively well in terms of relative pure technical efficiency, compared with their Australian counterparts. However, the total factor productivity of New Zealand universities increased at a lower rate, on average, than that of the Australian Group of Eight and newer Australian universities. The application of DEA to a dataset of the participating TEIs in the PBRF showed that polytechnics had lower technical efficiency, on average, than other TEIs. The choices of bachelor’s degree starters in 2006 were analysed for evidence of a lack of parity of esteem between university and polytechnic degrees. The results showed that a lack of parity of esteem between polytechnic and university degrees may be influencing student choices. Students from higher deciles schools, with higher secondary school qualifications, Asians, students who travel for study, were all more likely to enrol in a university to start a bachelor’s degree. There was less clear cut evidence of a lack of parity of esteem between selected groupings of New Zealand universities. However, there did appear to be a lack of parity of esteem between the four older metropolitan universities and the two newest universities, with signs the former were held in higher esteem.

There is something happening in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. There is an economic boom and the GDP is growing. But, what causes the economy to grow? Is the explanation factor accumulation or is there a technologic growth. The long-term growth in East Asia from 1960 to 1997 was misinterpreted by many. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how large the total factor productivity growth has been in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between 1996 and 2001. The stated purpose is being tested by using growth accounting. The result differs between countries; some countries have a strong technological growth while others’ GDP growth is dependent on factor accumulation. The result of the latter, if it will continue, is a downturn in the GDP growth since it is not viable in the long term. / Vad är det som händer i Centrala Östeuropa och de Baltiska staterna? Deras ekonomier växer, men frågan är vad tillväxten kommer ifrån. Är det faktorackumulation eller teknologisk tillväxt? Den långvariga tillväxten i Östra Asien från 1960-talet fram till slutet av 1990-talet misstolkades av många. I den här uppsatsen undersöks vad som ligger till grund för tillväxten i de tidigare kommunistländerna. Med hjälp av ”growth accounting” estimeras vad var och en av kapital, arbetskraft och teknologisk utveckling bidrar med till utvecklingen. Resultatet var inte likartat för alla undersökta länder. Vissa länder hade en stark teknologisk tillväxt under den undersökta perioden, medan andra länders tillväxt enbart berodde på faktorackumulation. Resultatet av den senare, om detta kommer att fortsätta, är att tillväxten kommer att avta då faktorackumulerad tillväxt inte är långsiktig.

Any one organization or agency, whether for-profit or non-profit organizations that are seeking to enhance their efficiency, improve production technology, thereby achieving the goal of improving productivity, with a view to the current competitive environment. Efficiency measurement is very important, it can help decision makers understand whether the organization achieve technology progress and innovation objectives. In recent years, the government and civil organizations devote themselves to measure the change of organizational efficiency and productivity. Academia constantly research and develop various models of efficiency and productivity analysis, and application to actual cases analysis. Efficiency and productivity analysis has leapt to the mainstream of production economic studies. This empirical study adopts the census data of the classification of the Chamber of Commerce and industry of manufacturing in Taiwan, using two-stage approach to explore dynamic agglomeration externalities of 2-digit manufacturing. In the first stage, we apply dynamic network data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index to calculate static efficiency and dynamic efficiency of 2-digit manufacturing. In the second stage, we apply Tobit regression analysis to verify a manufacturing geographical concentration effects on productive efficiency. We also adopt two-stage least squares methods (2SLS) to validate dynamic agglomeration externalities effects of manufacturing. Based on the results of this empical study, we propose some specific practical policy alternatives and management strategies. In the last 20 years, the strctures of Taiwan manufacturing industries have significant changes, the livelihood industry and of the sharp decline in industry, the chemical industry, electronics industry, metal machinery industry is growing fast. There is an obvous agglomeration tendency toward northern Taiwan region. In static efficiency, labour-intensive manufacturing industries tend to be diminishing return to scale rendering, while knowledge-intensive industries are rendering the increasing trend. The scale efficiency of eastern region manufacturing is very low, resulting in their productive efficiency significantly lower than the northern, central, southern regional manufacturing. In dynamic efficiency, the total factor productivity (TFP) of Taiwan manufacturing industries are rendering the growth trend, achieving the goal of innovation effect. However, the technical efficiency of manufacturing are rendering decline trend. This study found that the most important impact factor on production efficiency is the internal economies of scale. Localization economies, urbanization economies, and other static agglomeration economies external effect gradually reduce. Moreover, this study also found that Taiwan manufacturing industries have notable MAR professional dynamic external economics and notable Porter regional competitive dynamic external economic effect. Besides, Taiwan manufacturing industries has noticeable human resource dynamic external economics, but we also found low wages is beneficial to regional economic growth. We should not expand to explain Taiwan manufacturing-sweatshops. This phenomenon may be caused by high salaries, high rents, high land costs and high labor costs, these factors offset the interest of agglomeration economies. Finally, Taiwan and mainland China signed a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in Chongqing on 29 June 2010. Taiwan manufacturing inevitably be impacted and influenced by ECFA. This is an important topic worthy of further study and discussion in the future.

In recent years, the risks created by the import of energy on the security of energy supply has encouraged countries to utilize local resources to a greater extend, and for many countries including Turkey coal is at the top of the local resources. However, it is not sufficient for countries to have an energy resource itself. Intens competition in today&#039 / s globalized system requires the resources to be produced and utilized in the most economical manner. The supply of the resources to the market in a competitive way is possible by employing an efficient operation, which is then possible only through the business units producing these resources working efficiently. In this study, the efficiencies of the eight establishments of the Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKI) between 2006 to 2009 were analyzed by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Super Efficiency (SE) and Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index (MI) methodologies. For the analyses, three output oriented models were constructed and used: Production Efficiency, Revenue Efficiency and Work Safety Efficiency models. In determining the input and output data used in the analyses, it was benefited from similar studies searched in the literature, knowledge of business and economics and a series of brainstorming of the expert panel consisting of ten high level representatives of the public and private lignite mining companies as well as that of the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. As a part of the analyses, first the production and revenue efficiencies of the establishments were analyzed by using Constant Return to Scale (CRS) and Variable Return to Scale (VRS) methods of DEA. Within this context, efficient and inefficient establishments for the years between 2006 to 2009, and benchmarks for inefficient establishments to move to becoming efficient were determined. Furthermore, for the production and revenue efficiency models, the target values and improvement potentials for the inefficient establishments in CRS analyses to becoming more efficient were calculated by using benchmarks tables and 2009 realized values of inputs and outputs. Second, the efficiency rankings of the efficient establishments among themselves between 2006 to 2009 were determined by using SE methodology. Third, to provide the dynamic analysis of the development of the establishments&#039 / s efficiency levels in time, the changes of production, revenue and work safety efficiencies of the establishments between 2006 to 2009 were analyzed using the Malmquist Index (MI) methodology. MI analyses included the analysis of the efficiencies in four efficiency components (Technical, Technological, Pure and Scale efficiencies) as well as the calculation of the Total Factor Productivity Indexes of the establishments.

<p>There is something happening in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic</p><p>States. There is an economic boom and the GDP is growing. But, what causes the economy to grow? Is the explanation factor accumulation or is there a technologic growth. The long-term growth in East Asia from 1960 to 1997 was misinterpreted by many. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how large the total factor productivity growth has been in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between 1996 and 2001. The stated purpose is being tested by using growth accounting.</p><p>The result differs between countries; some countries have a strong technological growth while others’ GDP growth is dependent on factor accumulation. The result of the latter, if it will continue, is a downturn in the GDP growth since it is not viable in the long term.</p> / <p>Vad är det som händer i Centrala Östeuropa och de Baltiska staterna? Deras ekonomier växer, men frågan är vad tillväxten kommer ifrån. Är det faktorackumulation eller teknologisk tillväxt? Den långvariga tillväxten i Östra Asien från 1960-talet fram till slutet av 1990-talet misstolkades av många. I den här uppsatsen undersöks vad som ligger till grund för tillväxten i de tidigare kommunistländerna.</p><p>Med hjälp av ”growth accounting” estimeras vad var och en av kapital, arbetskraft och teknologisk utveckling bidrar med till utvecklingen.</p><p>Resultatet var inte likartat för alla undersökta länder. Vissa länder hade en stark teknologisk tillväxt under den undersökta perioden, medan andra länders tillväxt enbart berodde på faktorackumulation. Resultatet av den senare, om detta kommer att fortsätta, är att tillväxten kommer att avta då faktorackumulerad tillväxt inte är långsiktig.</p>